The Beano has been accused of being “incredibly irresponsible” for promoting junk food to children through online quizzes and portraying vegetables as “vile”.
An investigation by The British Medical Journal found that the comic's website, viewed by tens of millions of children and described to parents as a “safe space for kids to play”, pushed positive content about brands such as McDonald’s and Nando’s.
Among quizzes targeted at children as young as six is an “ultimate McDonald’s quiz” and another entitled: “How well do you know the Nando’s menu?”
The brands had not paid for the content, but campaigners criticised The Beano’s willingness to “showcase” junk food as “cool”.
In contrast, in an online game on the website, Forknite, children are asked to help Minnie the Minx defeat a “plate of vile veg”.
The more vegetables that are “defeated” in one turn, the louder the farting sound that is played.
Kat Jenner, director of nutrition, research, campaigns and policy at the Obesity Health Alliance, said: “It is an incredibly irresponsible way of promoting unhealthy food.”
‘Harmful to children’
Professor Boyd Swinburn, of the University of Auckland in New Zealand and honorary professor at the Global Obesity Centre in Melbourne, branded The Beano “naive” for giving “free advertising” to junk food brands and products.
He called on the company to change its policy and to no longer showcase products that are harmful to children.
He added: “Corporations which are clever enough to capture and hold children’s attention need to have very high ethical standards.”
The fact that the content was not paid for means it escapes rules related to so-called “advergames”.
The BMJ research team, Claire Mulrenan and Mark Petticrew, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and freelance journalist Harry Wallop, also highlighted an “ultimate food logo” quiz.
The 10 answers were Greggs, Heinz, Pizza Hut, Nando’s, Subway, Domino’s, Quorn, KFC, Pizza Express and Burger King. Another page is dedicated to jokes based on Skittles sweets.
In Scotland, where Beano publisher DC Thomson is based, 24.1 per cent of children in the first year of primary school are at risk of being overweight or obese.
In England, 23.5 per cent of children in their final year of primary school were obese in 2021/22, official figures have shown.
Pre-watershed television advertising of junk food, designed to tackle childhood obesity, is to be banned by the UK Government in 2025.
Since its launch in 2016, 47.9 million children have visited beano.com, which is designed for children aged between six and 12.
It focuses heavily on interactive quizzes and has previously won major industry awards, as part of DC Thomson’s attempts to produce digital Beano content alongside its print comic, which has been running since 1938.
Henry Dimbleby, lead author of England’s National Food Strategy - which called for a salt and sugar tax on processed food - said: “People at Beano might be thinking: ‘Oh, well, you know, it's just a little bit of fun, that’s what the kids like.’
“But I just think it is all pervasive in society. This stuff invades every element of their lives.”
The Beano said the website also runs some positive content about fruit, vegetables and healthy eating - including the “ultimate vegetarian quiz”.
A spokesman for Beano said: “We strongly feel that the BMJ opinion piece does not give a representative or balanced picture of the content on the Beano website, choosing instead to cite selective examples out of context to suit the authors’ line of argument.
“Beano takes kids’ health and well-being seriously. We care deeply about our young audience, making every decision with their interests at heart. The article does not, in our view, accurately reflect the overall Beano.com experience - a safe, informative and entertaining online space that provides kids with age-appropriate, compliant content on topics of interest that they search for to help them navigate and understand the world around them.
“Around five per cent of the content found on beano.com features food or drink. Children may visit beano.com having searched for jokes about Skittles, but will also find pictures of broccoli, apples, pineapples and many other fruit and vegetables on other pages. Beer and wine facts - found in less than one per cent of the quizzes on beano.com - are consistent with those within the KS1 and KS2 National Curriculum history programmes.
“Beano.com’s ability to engage, inform and encourage kids to eat more vegetables was endorsed when it was chosen by VegPower and ITV as a media partner for the launch of the multi-award-winning, behaviour change campaign Eat Them to Defeat Them in 2019. Bafflingly – and indicative in our view of the BMJ authors’ selective focus - they chose to cite one of the quizzes in that campaign as evidence of encouraging a negative influence on kids’ attitudes to healthy eating when the intent of the content in the context of that campaign was clearly the opposite.”
